Zhangjiajie boat trip

Our final morning in the Zhanjaijie Mountains and we are going on a boat trip. Of course we had to catch a shuttle bus to get there, then a short queue and on to our boat.

Once we were on the electric powered boat it was very peaceful and we soon passed a traditional Tujia style boat complete with a handsome young man singing to us.

He ended with a yodel like flourish and we all yodelled back. I assume that he then sat back down and played a game on his phone until the next boat went past.

His quiet colleague also looked the part.

Two minutes later we approached a traditional fisherman with his cormorants. Exactly on que one of the cormorants dived and caught a big fish.

Was that an amazing sight or perhaps it was a stunt fish?

More lovely views of the mountains and traditional houses.

Then a boat with a beautiful young lady singing to us.

I was genuinely disappointed that the cruise had ended, although there was just time for one last song from the lady who took our tickets.

Back on the bus and to a waterfall. 

Finally we drove to the airport to catch our flight to Shanghai.

Avatar Mountains

 I have realised that visiting mountains in China is done very differently to the way it is done in most of the rest of the world. I am not saying that as a criticism, and it is very interesting to see it in action.

Today we visited the Zhanjaijie Mountains, which are now, thanks to the film, also known as the Avatar Mountains.

Firstly we took a cablecar up to the first level.

The views were spectacular and the cablecar extremely speedy. It needed to be because it had to move a huge number of people. Our guide had bought VIP tickets so we strolled past the queues.

At the top we caught a shuttle bus for about half an hour and arrived at plaza that even had a McDonald's.

From then on the day turned into a blur of huge crowds, amazing views and shuttle buses speeding along narrow roads.

The picture above is of a viewpoint titled 'The number one bridge in the world', and it had a 350 metre drop to the forest floor.

We also stopped to look at a giant statue of a local General who was a contemporary of Chairman Mao.

I am not sure, but I think that the little girl must be horsing, and I didn't dare try it myself.

Part way around we saw the peak that inspired the film Avatar. It might look small in the photo but it is actually very big with full grown mature trees on the top.

Getting back down the mountain was also entertaining as we caught a 100 storey lift that took only 88 seconds.

At the base a tribe of monkeys had realised that there was rich pickings to be taken from the tourists. They were okay at the moment, but give them a few years and they will be terrifying.

In the evening we went on an outing to the Tujia 72 Wonder Tower.

The Tujia people are a minority group inside China with their own traditions, clothes and food. The Wonder Building is a vast entertainment area that highlights all of their traditions in a totally crazy modern way.

Chinese mountains

 Today we started the day with a visit to the Zhanjaijie Grand Canyon. It is an extremely popular place to visit and has the world's longest glass bridge.

The whole area is set up for tourists and it is more like an amusement park rather than a natural area, and there's nothing wrong with that.

I was very nervous about crossing the bridge, but it only has glass down the middle so I could walk down the sides, although I did venture once on to the glass for a photo.

Darren being much more logical than me just walked happily along the middle all the way.

The canyon had vertical sides and from the bridge we could see the views, and also tiny people in the distance on an unbelievably high zip wire.

We then had a choice, do we catch the glass lift down the mountain or do we do the zip wire?

After queueing for over two hours our choice became clear.

After my knees stopped knocking we slid down a giant slide to the valley floor. At the bottom was a short boat ride, past a very pretty waterfall.

The only way up was by elevator, the first two were inside the mountain, and the third had a glass front.

The visit took longer than expected, so then we had to rush to the next destination, and got there just as it was closing. 

We were at the Tianmen Mountain National Forest Park. It was lovely and peaceful and we walked towards a cable car that whizzed us up the mountain.

On the way up were amazing mountain views, but mostly we stared at the 99 bends road that also went to our destination.

I have already mentioned that the number nine is lucky in China, but this place takes it to extremes.

We arrived at a big square and then reached the 999 steps to the final destination of Heaven's Gate.

It was too cloudy to see it from the bottom so we went up on the escalators. These were huge and absolutely packed full of people coming down. 

Our guide said that it was five escalators to the top with little walks in between them. We, along with almost everyone in our group came to a flat area

but we just carried on walking and in the end, after about 12 escalators we reached the end.

Darren took a photo of the view.

Mystified we tried to find the Heaven's Gate and in the end, started on the long ride down.

Again we reached the flat area and lots of people were taking photos. 

We did too, and then belatedly realised that we were standing in the Heaven's Gate right at the top of the 999 steps.

We caught the five escalators down and arrived very late at the group meeting point. Fortunately we weren't last as loads more of the group had done the same thing too. Maybe we did the 1999 option.

In the end it worked out very well because we were so late that it had got completely dark and the clouds started to clear.

The actual Gate is enormous and is lit up in the last photo and looks like a giant egg.